Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Improvement Of Water And Water-Dependent Resources Under The Great Lakes Charter Annex, Sandi Zellmer, David Gecas, Kori Anne Mann

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

The Governors of 8 states and Premiers of 2 Canadian provinces signed a supplementary agreement to the Great Lakes Charter on June 18, 2001. This agreement, known as the Annex or Annex 2001, established principles for a new decision making framework for reviewing proposed withdrawals of Great Lakes water. Annex 2001 is the first step toward a set of binding water management agreements to be negotiated by June 2004. Directive 3 of the Annex provides that proposals to withdraw water will not be approved unless they will produce "an improvement to the waters and water dependent natural resources of the …

Biodiversity In And Around Mcelligot's Pool, Sandi Zellmer, Scott A. Johnson

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Through characters like farmer McElligot and the Lorax, who spoke out against the greedy Once-ler and his destructive clear-cutting practices, Theodor Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Suess, vividly depicted the plight of many private lands and waterways in the twentieth century. Although the message still resonates with children (and adults) today, the ecological health of private land has not improved a whole lot since Geisel wrote McElligot's Pool in 1947. Don't get me wrong, there have been immense gains in industrial pollution control and in habitat preservation on public lands. Yet there is still a long way to go, particularly on private …

Sustaining Geographies Of Hope: Cultural Resources On Public Lands, Sandi Zellmer

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

This Article integrates constitutional principles, statutory requirements, and federal policy governing the use and preservation of cultural resources to sketch out a decision-making framework for public land managers. Specific examples of cases where American Indian interests have been pitted against competing demands at Devils Tower National Monument, the Indian Pass area of the California Desert, and the Medicine Wheel are examined to illustrate optimal solutionssolutions allowing the greatest possible accommodation of cultural, even spiritual, interests, while protecting the resources from degradation. The conflicts at these sites, and the opportunities presented by these conflicts, show that federal agencies can adopt reasonable …

Termination Of Desegregation Decrees And The Elusive Meaning Of Unitary Status, Susan Poser

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Discusses the termination of desegregation decrees and the elusive meaning of unitary status, first introducing the topic and then covering Jenkins III and providing an overview of desegregation scholarship including discretion, capacity, and legitima. Also discusses the evolution of equity, including English equity, American equity, and equity and desegregation. Explores the concepts of relevant rights and interests, focusing on Hohfeld, the interest theory of rights, and the application of the rights theory. The conclusion posits that what remains is a complicated and confused desegregation jurisprudence, and that the lines that separate desegregation from integration from diversity, if there ever were …

Waste Management In The U.S. Context: Trade Or Environmental Issue?, Matthew Schaefer

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

There are three or four general categories of "waste." There is "municipal solid waste" (the waste that comes out of households, hotels, restaurants, businesses, etc.), "hazardous waste," and "nuclear waste," the latter of which is sometimes divided into low-level and high-level nuclear waste. (My remarks today will focus almost exclusively on municipal solid waste and hazardous waste).

All of us are most familiar with municipal solid waste. Where does municipal solid waste end up? The vast majority of U.S. municipal solid waste - 57 percent - goes to landfills. Twenty-two percent of U.S. municipal solid waste is recycled, fifteen percent …

Justifying Capital Punishment In Principle And In Practice: Empirical Evidence Of Distortion In Application, Robert F. Schopp

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Some Supreme Court opinions overturn capital sentences or reason that such sentences should be overturned due to inappropriate patterns of application, although the Justices writing these opinions apparently accept capital punishment ("CP") as constitutional in principle. In a widely-recognized opinion, Justice Blackmun announced that he would no longer accept CP as constitutional under the Eighth Amendment by stating, "I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death." He previously accepted CP as constitutional, however, and apparently continued to see it as constitutional in principle. Three of five concurring Justices in Furman overturned the capital sentences at issue in that …

The Nebraska Death Penalty Study: An Interdisciplinary Symposium, Robert F. Schopp

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

The four papers presented in this symposium reflect upon and develop the data presented and the concerns raised during a public panel at the University of Nebraska in February 2002. That panel and this symposium were organized to promote public discussion of and reflection upon an empirical study that examined the death penalty as it has been applied in Nebraska during the last quarter of the twentieth century! Those who support the death penalty, those who oppose it, and those who remain uncertain should agree at least on the following proposition. The death penalty raises some of the most important …

The Roadless Area Controversy: Past, Present, And Future, Sandra Zellmer

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

On January 5, 2001, after more than a year of public deliberations but only a few days before leaving office, the Clinton Administration issued the Roadless Area Conservation Rule (Roadless Rule), placing one-third of all national forest lands off-limits to road construction. Opponents argue that this prohibitation creates "de facto" wilderness preserves, locking up the affected lands -- nearly 60 million acres lying almost entirely within 12 western states -- to mineral development, timber harvest, and other extractive industries.

The Roadless Rule is the subject of both ongoing litigation and reconsideration by the Bush Administration. Regardless of the outcome of …